10 Great Cartoons Based On Hit Movies

At this point in entertainment’s timeline, adaptations can be based on just about anything under the sun, and they can similarly be presented as just about anything under the sun. Marvel recently unveiled test footage from their Guardians of the Galaxy Disney XD animated series, whose existence is based more on people’s love of the movie than the film itself (and obviously the comic series). It’s also a good time to remind everyone about Jerry Bruckheimer’s upcoming event series based on a Carrie Underwood song.

Below are ten most excellent examples of how a film can successfully get animated and not turn into a complete disaster, even if the series’ time at its network was indeed disastrous, as it sometimes was. A few guilty pleasure goodies like Rambo admittedly got left out, and I had to semantically force myself to turn Tales from the Cryptkeeper down, even though there was technically a Tales from the Crypt movie that came between the comic origins and the HBO series. Anyway, the main question here is: why are we walking like this?

Clerks: The Animated Series

Well before Clerks II gave donkey shows their fifteen minutes of fame, Kevin Smith, Scott Mosier and Seinfeld writer David Mandel created a perfect TV comedy in Clerks: The Animated Series, which only got a measly six episodes produced at ABC. The experience is one of those Kevin Smith horror stories that makes it easy to understand why he has no more patience for major studios. (The network only aired two out-of-order episodes.) Regardless, these are still six expertly crafted half-hours of comedy, in which the second episode is flashback episode all about the first one. Most of the cast voiced their cartoon counterparts, with Alec Baldwin stepping in as Leonardo Leonardo, a forward-thinking businessman villain. There are an abundance of meta pop culture moments - including references to Stand by Me and Korean animation - and the series also toys with sitcom tropes and storytelling in general. Plus, Charles Barkley is constantly getting emotionally shafted.